figo's Bankathon proves it: PSD2 is already a reality!

Make payments by instalments in every online shop. Impossible? Wrong! IntraBase shows how and takes 1st place at the Bankathon 2016

24 OKTOBER 2016

Zusammenfassung

Take one event--the first Hamburg FinTech Week, one organizer - namely figo, 16 sponsors, nine media partners, six API partners, a 30-hour time limit, 85 ingenious programmers and product developers forming 21 teams, as well as over 200 participants at the Final Pitches. One of the biggest FinTech events that has ever taken place in Hamburg has finished, and believe it or not, the icing on the cake at Bankathon 2016 was the EU Payment Services Directive 2 (PSD2)! The task for the teams, who participated in the FinTech programming competition from 9 to 11 October, was based the 'Access to Account' concept. To put it simply: the contestants had to include an existing bank account in their ideas and solutions.

<code> PSD2 is the XS2Adventure </code>

85 developers came to Hamburg from Berlin, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna, Barcelona and where they were challenged to build the future of banking, under the motto <code> PSD2 is the XS2Adventure </ code>. And yes, PSD2 was involved: both for the developers as well as in discussions with and between the sponsors, which mainly consisted of banks, but also software houses, consulting firms and FinTechs. In addition, XS2A(dventure) could be found in all the team results - sometimes with more and sometimes with less Adventure.

Many participants had not really been aware of what exactly PSD2 was or what 'Access to Account' meant. The organizers at figo were not concerned with adhering to the EU guideline in every detail--insofar as how much their national effects have even been finalized. "It was a question of bringing the issue closer to developers, who finally have to adapt and redesign systems over the course of the directive’s national implementation," explains André Bajorat on his decision to base the Bankathon on PSD2. "At the same time, representatives of banks should see in living colour the potential the PSD2 offers them. The goal of the Bankathon was to bring together a whole industry with its different players and demonstrate what the best people can do in just 30 hours."

Three more than worthy winners: IntraBase, fintracer & Stockbattle

One can obviously expect the solutions and ideas that have arisen during this year's Bankathon to cover numerous topics. After 30 hours, the focus was on payment, investment & savings, PFM, B2B solutions, voice banking and chatbot.

Instalment payments send the winning team to New York

The winning team came from Austria and was a first-time constellation of team members. For Sasan Hashemi, who pitched for the team, it was the first-ever experience at such an event. The team from IntraBase saw the opportunity to start a new project while participating in the Bankathon. The four had the idea of creating a solution that could benefit as many end users as possible. Within the available 30 hours they built a solution that is independent of an online store, but allows the customer to choose to pay in instalments. The team used the APIs of figo and VISA for implementation. "Due to the extremely positive feedback from the jury, the other teams and the audience, we are definitely ready to work on the project," said Hashemi.

The team took first place and thus secured a seven-day trip to New York. They will also attend one of the most important FinTech conferences in the world: the FinDEVr New York, which will be held on 21 and 22 March 2017. They will also be given the opportunity to present their idea at EXEC I / O on 5 and 6 April 2017 in Berlin as well as at an upcoming 'Between the Towers' event.

fintracer wins with voice solution and earns a trip to FinDEVr London

The Aboalarm team developed their product, fintracer, during the Bankathon. The team, led by David Drews, had an urge to create an intelligent PFM solution. Of course, such tools are a dime a dozen nowadays, but surely none has been as clever as this. The team has built a product that could soon become a user's personal financial assistant. And of course, it should always be possible to speak with your personal financial assistant. The team impressively demonstrated during their pitch what is possible with the help of Amazon's Alexa. Alexa "tells" you the state of your own finances on demand, points out any duplicate insurance policies, cancels them if desired, and reports when your next salary will be transferred. The team used the figo API for the realization. "The fact that so many participants and teams were involved pushed us to take a closer look at the project in order to convince the jury and the audience of our vision," says Max Effenberger from the fintracer project.

The team took second place, winning a seven-day trip to London and a visit to FinDEVr London (12 and 13 June 2017). The team can also look forward to making pitches at the EXEC I / O and on 'Between the Towers'.

Stockbattle combines entertainment media with the conservative banking world

The team around Christian Süß, a developer at Fiducia, has developed Stockbattle. The team first met at the event itself, so one can imagine the difficult conditions. They set themselves the goal of drawing users to an app about investment and value investments by making a game of it. The relation to Pokémon Go should not escape the attentive listener. In this particular case, however, the user searches for microshares, which can be purchased in the low euro or cent range. You can also battle other "players", which means competing using the company whose shares you bought. The stock that performs better wins. Later on, experience points are added, you level up, and can invest in more high-risk stocks. The team used the APIs of comdirect, figo and upchain to include current user financial data.

The team took third place and won Sonos Play:1 speakers, two for each team member. They will also present their idea at EXEC I / O and at 'Between the Towers'. It will be worthwhile to check out this team again!

Comdirect invites three teams to pitch

Comdirect awarded another prize as Diamond Sponsor. They invited three teams: fintracer, Stockbattle and Investment Profiler, to pitch their idea and then move to the start-up garage.

The Fait team is one who worked all through the night, actually using the full 30 hours to complete their project, Investment Profiler. They developed a tool that uses figo API to read the user's transactions, thus identifying the interests of a person and offering personalized investment opportunities based on them. In concrete terms, this means that Investment Profiler recognizes the transactions that have been bought for example in an organic supermarket. The tool thus identifies a fundamental interest in sustainability and proposes ecologically friendly investment possibilities. Fait was represented in two roles: the team around Christian Grohs was a participant and at the same time the company provided its API.

Who made it possible?

The fact that the Bankathon was able to take place again and in this form is due to its numerous sponsors, API partners, and media partners.

In addition to the figo Banking API, the available APIs were the those of comdirect, SAP, Fait, Upchain and VISA. For the first time, VISA provided an API for the European area, a premiere for which the Bankathon provided the perfect backdrop.

And what good is the whole thing if nobody hears about it? Very simple: none whatsoever!

We are very grateful to our numerous media partners who accompanied the Bankathon during the preparation, during the event, and in the aftermath. A heartfelt thanks goes to ...

... Franz Cong Bui from the Börsen-Zeitung (https://www.boersen-zeitung.de/index.php), who also joined us rather on the spot. The 14 October edition is especially interesting from figo's point of view!

Zitate

"It was a question of bringing the issue closer to developers, who finally have to adapt and redesign systems over the course of the directive’s national implementation. At the same time, representatives of banks should see in living colour the potential the PSD2 offers them. The goal of the Bankathon was to bring together a whole industry with its different players and demonstrate what the best people can do in just 30 hours."
André M. Bajorat, figo CEO

"Due to the extremely positive feedback from the jury, the other teams and the audience, we are definitely ready to work on the project."
Sasan Hashemi, IntrBase

"The fact that so many participants and teams were involved pushed us to take a closer look at the project in order to convince the jury and the audience of our vision."
Max Effenberger, fintracer